đ CAT Newsletter 278 - 2025-07-27
Hey CATs,
Welcome to issue 278 of the ClimateAction.tech (CAT) Newsletter - your weekly summary of what's happening inside the CAT Slack community (join here and check out our onboarding checklist), and in the wider world of climate and tech.
Remember you can unsubscribe from this newsletter at any time - the link is at the bottom.
Stay curious đđđ±
CAT Community News
#ïžâŁ Channel highlights
#greener-webdev: S has been exploring the newest issue of Branch Magazine - in particular, N's article on 'an internet that works with our natural rhythms'. Join the discussion
#carbon-footprint: O is asking: let's say that you wanted to cut the carbon footprint of a digital service that you operate but only had time/budget to do one thing, where would you focus? Share your thoughts
#culture-society: After discovering a BBC video on degrowth, M is asking 'is degrowth is becoming more mainstream?' Answer in the thread
#greener-data-ai: Off the back of the article that highlights the connection of Big Tech and Big Oil that D shared last week, a link to a related campaign - the Enabled Emissions Campaign - was shared in the thread
đ Local connections
#local-vancouver: O is asking whether anyone else attended the Pacific Northwest Climate Week events over this past week. Join the channel to connect with O!
#local-united-states:Â KÂ shared an online campaign he's been involved in to raise funds for climate resilience
#local-netherlands:Â MÂ shared an introduction in the channel
#local-london:Â SÂ is inviting attendees of our last CAT meetup to share takeaways
#local-uk: L is suggesting a response to the UK's Met office compeition to name the next 5 storms::
The Met Office is currently looking for people to suggest up to 5 names for storms. It would be great if thousands all suggested the same 5 names (in alphabetical order as thatâs how storm names apoear):
BigOil, BP, Equinor, Exxon, Shell.
This is a creative, humorous and peaceful way to register our concerns and protest to a government body.
#local-germany:Â M's reminder for early bird tickets for Eco Compute 2025 might be outdated but you can still use the channel to coordinate meeting up during the conference!
đ© Community networking
Every 2 weeks, we match 2-3 CATs so you can connect over a quick 30-minute call. Join #cat-roulette, pick your region and wait for a message from Donut. The next round of matches will go out on Fri, August 8th. More info.
Media, events, and news
đș CAT recommendations
đ± Issue 9 of Branch Magazine!
The latest issue of Branch magazine, the magazine by and for people who dream of a just and sustainable internet for all, went live this week! Issue 9's theme is Attunement â Designing in an Era of Constraints, and with a bumper crop of 17 fascinating articles and a fresh new grid-aware redesign.
Visit Issue 9 of Branch
If to prefer read at a more leisurely pace, over the coming weeks we'll be highlighting specific pieces in this newsletter, in our "A cutting from Branch" series too.
â¶ïž CAT videos
10-15 minute videos providing accessible explainers to climate related issues.
PBS Terra: Are These Islands Invincible to Sea Level Rise?
Low-lying island nations are truly ground zero when it comes to sea level rise. But, a series of studies seemed to show that many islands seemed to be GROWING, not sinking as they were predicted to do. So, what's going on? Are islands invisible to sea level rise, and what does that mean for coastal areas around the world? In this episode, we dive into the controversy to uncover what is REALLY going on with atoll islands.
đ€Â Podcasts
The latest climate-related podcast episodes. Don't forget, if you're looking around, there's a list of podcasts maintained by CATs
Outrage + Optimism: The ICJ Climate Opinion Explained
International Court of Justice President Yuji Iwasawa just delivered a landmark advisory opinion on climate change and human rights - one that could transform global climate action and accountability. Fresh from the courtroom, Julian Aguon, the indigenous human rights lawyer who represented Pacific nations, and Jennifer Robinson, barrister for Vanuatu and the Marshall Islands, bring their raw, unfiltered reactions to this history-making ruling. As governments, legal teams, and corporate leaders worldwide scramble to interpret its implications, we have everything you need to know about what just happened in The Hague.
Catalyst: Repurposing EV batteries for grid storage
The job of an EV battery is unforgiving. If its performance slips too far â say, lost acceleration or range â it's probably off to the recycling heap. That's even though it may have plenty of usable life, if only for something less demanding than powering a vehicle. Grid storage is theoretically a gentler job, involving slower discharging and more careful management. Still, repurposing isn't easy. It requires dealing with a mishmash of various makes, models, and levels of quality. And it means competing against the falling price of new, purpose-built storage systems. So how does second-life storage on the grid actually work?
Environment Variables: Real Efficiency at Scale with Sean Varley
Anne Currie is joined by Sean Varley, Chief Evangelist and VP of Business Development at Ampere Computing, a leader in building energy-efficient, cloud-native processors. They unpack the energy demands of AI, why power caps and utilization matter more than raw compute, and how to rethink metrics like performance-per-rack for a greener digital future. Sean also discusses Ampere's role in the AI Platform Alliance, the company's partnership with Rakuten, and how infrastructure choices impact the climate trajectory of AI.
Zero - The Climate Race: Trump's immigration policy is a nightmare for climate tech
Everywhere you look, it seems like bad news for climate tech. Investments are down, the US government has cut incentives and startups are running out of cash. But venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is still bullish, even though the One Big Beautiful Bill cut an estimated $500 billion in green spending. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi speaks with Khosla to find out when we can expect to see fusion, whether he's reconsidering investing in the US and why he still thinks the best clean tech is yet to come.
The Climate Question: Is the race for rare earths good for the planet?
Rare earths have been described as the oil of the 21st century, incredibly valuable both economically and in the fight against climate change. There's a battle underway around the world to mine and control these minerals - a battle that is currently being won by China. As demand rises, the problems with rare earths are also becoming clearer because getting them out of the ground requires strip mining and the use of poisonous chemicals. BBC China Correspondent Laura Bicker has seen this environmental impact first hand on a visit to the rare earth hubs of Bayan Obo in northern China and Guanzuo in the south.
đ Submitted events
Want an event listed here? Use this event listing form to submit the details so we can add it in the newsletter.
Tuesday Jul 29, 2025 - BONUS Agile Sustainability initiative (Agile Alliance)
Bonus episode with initiative co-chairs. Latest news, events, adventures, what is becoming more apparent, pipeline / coming up, thoughts/emerging on the intersection of Agile and Sustainability etc Check out the Manifesto & initiative: https://lnkd.in/eGQRCtnj
Monday Aug 04, 2025 - Digital Collage workshop ONLINE
The Digital Collage is a fun and collaborative 3-hour workshop based on collaboration and collective intelligence. The aim of the workshop is to raise awareness and train participants on the environmental issues of digital technology.
Tuesday Aug 05, 2025 - Sustainability Essentials for Professionals
The ultimate 90-minute crash course for professionals to get to grips with the key climate, nature and sustainability concepts, how they link together and how to talk about them with impact!
This is a free session for anyone interested in getting a taste of our live training.
Wednesday Aug 06, 2025 - Designing for Impact â AI, User Behavior, and the Climate Cost of Design Choices
How do AI tools like ChatGPT nudge user behaviorâand whatâs the hidden environmental cost of those choices? In this hands-on session, weâll analyze real examples of AI product design and explore how we can reshape those experiences for smarter, climate-conscious outcomes.
Monday Sep 08, 2025 - VC-Founder Climate Matchup
Announcing the 2025 Climate Tech VC-Founder Matchup, with meetings taking place online between Sept 8th (Monday) to Sept 12th (Friday). Read more - https://sosv.com/announcing-sosvs-vc-founder-climate-tech-matchup-sept-8-12/
Wednesday Sep 24, 2025 - Green IO London 2025
Green IO and apidays London have partnered to gather 350+ responsible technologists to answer a simple question requiring complex answers:
"Good for the Planet, Good for Business?"
Hosted by Apidays, this takes place on September 23 to 24, 2025 in etc.venues, 155 Bishopsgate.
Sunday Aug 29, 2027 - Biodiversity Basics for Product Professionals
The products we build rely on and affect nature. This workshop will address: 1. What is biodiversity and why is it relevant for product professionals 2. What can you do & practical examples 3. Your takeaway: first biodiversity analysis along your product's value chain
đ° News Highlights
Branch Issue 9: Attunement â Designing in an Era of Constraints
What if we rebuild the internet to respond better to the constraints of the energy grid? How could we adapt the browsing experience to support awareness of how the physical realities of the planet affect our experience on the web? What if we reimagine digital infrastructures attuned to life systems? Digital futures that are built by default to operate within planetary constraints? What if we could prioritize community ownership of the internet, joy, and just the right amount of technology to meet collective needs?
This issue of Branch sets out to play with these possibilities.
Canary Media: Crusoe and Redwood Materials are powering a AI data center entirely with solar and old EV batteries
Today, the company unveiled a first-of-a-kind, off-grid modular data center for AI workloads, powered by a brand-new energy storage offering from the battery recycling company Redwood Materials. It represents the largest solar-powered, off-grid data center in the world â and the worldâs largest installation of second life batteries
Heated: He helped Microsoft build AI to help the climate. Then Microsoft sold it to Big Oil.
Will Alpine had every reason to believe he was about to help save the planet.
âI'd say for about a year, year and a half, we were heads down doing good sustainability work,â he said. âOnly then did I start to realize who was really using the AI that I was helping build.â
None of the 50 oil and gas companies Microsoft was working with publicly claimed to use Microsoftâs AI or cloud computing technology to transition away from fossil fuels, as the Microsoft CEO, Satya, Nadella had argued.
The decision to quit Microsoft was painful for both Will his partner Holly, both financially and emotionally. âIt was my dream job,â Holly said. âThatâs why it was so devastating to learn that our paychecks were dripping in oil.â
Interesting Engineering: World's first hybrid solar cargo ship
A new cargo ship is setting sail with 192 panels for 37,500 kWh power yearly. For the first time in inland shipping, solar energy can be transferred directly to the vessel's drivetrain, advancing clean propulsion technology.
EuroNews: Five key takeaways from the ICJ's historic climate ruling and what comes next
The ICJ's advisory opinion spells out states' duties on climate, opening doors for lawsuits and stronger climate action. On Wednesday, the UN's highest court delivered a historic opinion on climate change, outlining states' responsibilities under international law.
Think Landscape: The other Great Green Wall
Africa isn't content with just one Great Green Wall. It's now building another one â in Southern Africa. Last December, leaders from across Africa convened at the UNCCD COP16 desertification conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. One of the top items on the agenda: replicating the successes of the Sahelian Great Green Wall thousands of kilometres further south.
The Guardian: Google undercounts its carbon emissions, report finds
In 2021, Google set a lofty goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Yet in the years since then, the company has moved in the opposite direction as it invests in energy-intensive artificial intelligence. In its latest sustainability report, Google said its carbon emissions had increased 51% between 2019 and 2024.
UN: A Moment of Opportunity
On 22Â July 2025, the UN Secretary-General focused on a hopeful story emerging amidst the ongoing climate devastation and turmoil: that of a new energy era. He outlined a compelling and evidence-backed case for why a just transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy is inevitable â and the vast benefits it will bring for people and economies.
Forbes: Meet The New-To-Science Fish Named For Darth Vader
The black dwarfgoby was discovered in the coral reefs of the McLaren Fjord, of Tufi, Papua New Guinea. A trio of international scientists recently announced their discovery of a tiny purple-black fish species that is new to science.
đ Papers We Love đ
ACM: Making AI Less 'Thirsty'
Many AI models, especially large generative ones like GPT-4, are trained and deployed on energy-hungry servers in warehouse-scale datacentres, accelerating the datacenter energy consumption at an unprecedented rate.25 As a result, AI's carbon footprint has been undergoing scrutiny, driving the recent progress in AI carbon efficiency.24,31 However, AI's water footprintâmany millions of litres of freshwater consumed for cooling the servers and for electricity generationâhas largely remained under the radar and keeps escalating. This paper advocates for a holistic approach to sustainable AI that extends beyond the carbon footprint ,to also address the water footprint.
đŒ Jobs
Remember only jobs listing salary ranges are listed here - to get your job listed, you need to list a salary range. Folks can still look in the #jobs channel. Remember: if you're looking for advice finding a role, check our #climate-careers channel.
Openestead - Founding Engineer - ÂŁ55k-ÂŁ65k - Permanent - Flexible - remote ok
Openstead is an early-stage climate finance startup. Our mission is to mobilise funding that protects the places we live and work from climate risk.
Following the development of our MVP with industry support and funding, we are now looking to expand on our product to help insurers and property investors manage climate risk across their property portfolios.
Urban flooding risk is causing billions in losses for insurers and property investors. While climate adaptation is an urgent priority, nature-based solutions in citiesâdespite their proven effectivenessâremain drastically underfunded because their financial benefits to asset owners and insurers are difficult to quantify. This disconnect leaves billions in urban assets vulnerable and insurance incorrectly priced.
Our ambition is to make urban nature-based solutions into a mainstream investment class by providing the financial intelligence needed to scale green infrastructure as essential climate infrastructure.
Yottar - Full Stack Engineer - ÂŁ70-100k + generous equity - Permanent - Totally remote
Yottar is a startup on a mission to speed up the shift to clean energy. Weâre building a SaaS platform that helps energy developers figure out where they can connect new infrastructure - like EV chargers, batteries, or solar - to the electricity grid.
Right now, one of the biggest blockers to building the infrastructure we need for net zero is grid congestion. Weâre focused on solving this - helping developers see where thereâs spare capacity on the grid, and plan smarter, faster projects as a result.
We're looking for an experienced Full Stack Engineer who's excited to build something from the ground up. You'll get to shape both the product and how we build it. The ideal candidate is someone who happy making decisions, owning solutions end-to-end and working with a high degree of autonomy.
Our tech stack is boring: Django, Python, PostGIS and we're proud of that.
The deadline for applications is 16th July
GovTech (Government Technology Agency of Singapore) - Senior/Lead Product Manager - sadly, there isn't a culture of disclosing salary ranges upfront in Singapore yet :( so even i don't know what the actual pay range is :p but I googled, should be $8-10K per month at least as base pay! - Contract - Flexible - remote ok
this product has two goals. - key goal â help gov agencies reduce their resource consumption (e.g. elec, water, fuel, waste), through accessible data and actionable insights. - sub goal â walk-the-talk in our productâs digital design and SWE process; document learnings; share with the rest of SG gov đ. --- so we can get buy-in to green more SG govâs digital services đ„č
youâll be part of a team thatâs building a tool to: - gather relevant data, help gov agencies more easily and quickly understand what actions they can take. and importantly, - humanise the data to nudge gov officers to take action đȘđœ.
JOIN ME PLEASE!!! (cos i'm currently a one-pax team đ we're in the midst of forming the team!)
Icebreaker One - Account Manager - circa ÂŁ35k/yr. We work a 4-day week Mon-Thu - Permanent - Totally remote
Icebreaker One (IB1) is a UK-headquartered non-profit with a mission to make data work harder to achieve Net Zero. Weâre looking for someone to work as part of the team that extends and strengthens our network of partners across corporate, government and funding sectors.
Support our work
You can support us financially on Open Collective.